Roberto Di Matteo rules out selling David Luiz after Manchester City interest

Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo says he hopes to keep Brazilian defender David Luiz at the club despite interest from Manchester City and Barcelona.

David Luiz posted a picture on Twitter of him flying to Barcelona earlier this week (Picture: @DavidLuiz_4)

The 25-year-old centre back only joined the Blues from Portuguese side Benfica a year-and-a-half ago, but has been linked with a move out of Stamford Bridge in the last few months.

That talk has intensified in recent days, with Premier League champions Manchester City said to have failed with a £30million bid for Luiz.

The report has been since rejected by City, but manager Roberto Mancini admitted this week he is a fan of the player, calling him ‘fantastic’, while Barcelona are also known to be long-term admirers.

With the speculation continuing to mount, Di Matteo has ruled out selling Luiz, naming him as a key part of his plans.

‘David Luiz remains a very important player at Chelsea,’ Di Matteo told reporters.

Chelsea have also moved to clear up talk that Luiz has been fined for attending a sponsorship event in Lisbon this week, after tweeting that he couldn’t travel to the club’s game against Reading because of injury earlier in the day.

Di Matteo explained: ‘David went to a sponsor’s event. In the modern day, football players have sponsorship deals. As long as it doesn’t affect their performance, players try to obligate those duties.

‘We generally don’t fine our players for tweeting, although we remind them of the responsibilities they have.’